So I've heard that most people believe Pharika, God of Affliction is the worst of all Gods - even in EDH. Since I like to prove people wrong, I decided to build an enchantment-based deck with her at the helm. I took the deck for a spin on Cockatrice and joined a game that lasted for three hours (which is something incredibly rare in a free online play application), making it a fine example about how a deck built around Pharika can behave.

Basal Sliver and Metallic Sliver joined the group, but akorvyr refused to attack to keep all his slivers alive. Holsety cast Sculpting Steel copying Guilded Lotus. Then he tried Acquire; Dawn Charm said lol. Holsety brought Spellbound Dragon and Venser near dangerous levels. At EOT, I put Courser of Kruphix and Creakwood Liege into a fight, killing my own creature Then went for Venser with the Courser, now recovered from the damage. Holsety blocked with the dragon, as expected, so I bloodrushed my Wasteland Viper. After combat damage, Ulvenwald Tracker put the now deadly Courser fighting with the sphinx, killing both sphinx and dragon with two one-mana creatures Then I summoned Nylea, God of the Hunt. akorvyr now killed the defenseless Venser with all his slivers. I attacked Holsety with Nylea, but he blocked with Numot, then killed everything in rage with Wrath of God. I summoned Archetype of Endurance, and dprime used Body Double to copy Eidolon of Blossoms, then Clone to copy my own Archetype. So no moar hexproof for everyone. Archaeomancer brought the wrath back. Life from the Loam gave me a bunch of lands thanks to buddy Jace forcing me to discard so many times, then I cast Deathreap Ritual, a card that somehow managed to stick until the end of the game and drew me 10+ cards total. Counterflux said no no to Sliver Hivelord (thank jesus), and akorvyr raged against Holsety for 6 damage thanks to Shifting Sliver & friends. Vedalken Shackles and Empress Galina came for dprime, and Holsety tried to blow up the world again, but this time Wrath of God met a Spell Crumble. At last buddy Jace was taken down by the Goddess of the hunt, and I made two centaurs with Fated Intervention. Then came Sentinel Sliver, and now it was akorvyr who was getting dangerous with vigilant, unblockable slivers on his side. dprime cast Mind's Eye, and Holsety cast Diluvian Primordial, choosing Fated Intervention, Go for the Throat (killing Shifting Sliver) and Acquire, the latter promptly countered by Hinder.

I played Tectonic Edge and Herald of Torment bestowing Archetype of Endurance and attacked dprime with everything, since he had so much card advantage thanks to Mind's Eye and Reliquary Tower. I lost a centaur and he lost both clones and 12 life. akorvyr cast Faces of the Past and Sliver Overlord, which didn't last long thanks to a Wash Out set for green. dprime then took control of my demon with Shackles, ciphered Stolen Identity to Galina, and pinged me for one, creating two more Gilded Lotus. I finally blew up his Tower with Tectonic Edge, striping him from his card advantage. Holsety cast two legends in the form of Daxos of Meletis and Melek, Izzet Paragon, revealing a (quadruple) Double Negative from the top, which was used to counter my Extinguish All Hope, but not my Acidic Slime that blew up the original Sculpting Steel. akorvyr brought back Sliver Overlord and searched for Sliver Legion with him, while dprime played a face-down card. Sliver Legion was Render Silent. Turns out the face-down card was a Vesuvan Shapeshifter which decided to copy Daxos and attack Holsety, but Archaeomancer sacrificed himself to protect his master. Then his master tried to cast Return to Dust, exiling Vedalken Shackles and Faces of the Past, but was Counterlashed. dprime took the advantage of sending the Overlord into oblivion with Spin into Myth, which pretty much doomed akorvyr since his only source of card advantage has now vanished.

Archetype of Endurance was back again with hexproof this time, and soon followed Nylea. Melek met Doom Blade and akorvyr summoned his last two cards: Gemhide Sliver and Diffusion Sliver. Then dprime made the very bitch play of Ixidron. Hexproof was good while it lasted, I guess. Fortunately I had a monster that could give good use to all those morphs: Doomgape; which was followed by MOTHERFREAKING LADY OF SNAKES, AT LAST!!! Roil Elemental took control of Doomgape, and Stolen Goods found a Galvanoth from Holsety. Ral Zarek zapped Roil Elemental, giving me back the precious Doomgape. I exerted my revenge on the blue player and attacked with both him and my Goddess. A face-down creature blocked Pharika, while a 17/17 Ixidron blocked my 10/10 Doomgape. Never a Necrobite has been so useful in all of MtG, and dprime took 9 damage. Pharika's Mender resurrected Creakwood Liege from my graveyard. dprime cast Thada Adel, Acquisitor, and Holsety cast Sunforger. Oath of the Ancient Wood and Creakwood Liege joined the snake party, and I attacked dprime with my pumped up guys. Shackles tried to take the lady of snakes, but I used her ability to power her up thanks to the Oath, putting her out of reach. In a desperate move, dprime cast Reigns of Power as a fog effect, stopping my attack, then sacrificed my Doomgape for his High Market.

Copy Artifact doubled dprime's Shackles and gained control of my Liege, and Ral Zarek used his last loyalty to put down Thada Adel. It was finally time to cast my Pernicious Deed for three, effectively killing all the face-down cards and most of the threats, including Sunforger, while leaving my most powerful creatures alive. Pharika was blocked by the still living Galvanoth, and I cast Fate Unraveler. akorvyr conceded at this point, since he was out of cards both in the field and in hand, so unless he topdecked something amazing, he was never going to win the game. Dprime cast Bribery, fetching a Karmic Guide (mind that he has protection from black) to try return his Ixidron, but Pharika decides to enchant him with a snake and his plans fail. Finally, with six cards in my hand and zero cards in the hands of my opponents, I topdeck and cast Doomwake Giant, then proceed to summon a bunch of snakes with Pharika, effectively killing all creatures dprimer and Holsety controlled, and finally winning the game after three long hours!

Thumbs up for the nice story, it's something different from the usual "please ban" threads. I would like to see your decklist though. I don't think Pharika is the worst god, that's not possible because it's the bestestest color combination!!!1!

This is the current list. Mind that the deck is still fairly recent, so it has yet to be thoroughly tested to see what stays and what goes. I'm also thinking of writing an article about this and my other decks later on

So I've heard that most people believe Pharika, God of Affliction is the worst of all Gods - even in EDH.

I think you've heard wrong? Pharika sees some play in Standard - more than, e.g., Heliod - in both a b/g aggro shell and b/g constellation. Just being a 5/5 God for 3 that helps mitigate wraths is reasonable in aggro, and the ability to make enchantment tokens for B is very relevant in the constellation deck.

That decklist is dripping with flavor. You should bottle it and sell it. "What's that on your sandwich, Bob?" "Oh this? It's Pharikasauce!"

_________________"The President's job - and if someone sufficiently vain and stupid is picked he won't realize this - is not to wield power, but to draw attention away from it." -- Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide tot he Galaxy Radio Transcripts predicting the future.

So I've heard that most people believe Pharika, God of Affliction is the worst of all Gods - even in EDH.

I think you've heard wrong? Pharika sees some play in Standard - more than, e.g., Heliod - in both a b/g aggro shell and b/g constellation. Just being a 5/5 God for 3 that helps mitigate wraths is reasonable in aggro, and the ability to make enchantment tokens for B is very relevant in the constellation deck.

I believe so too, but everywhere on the internet I've heard people saying she's a disappointment as the BG God, how Wizards screwed up by giving the tokens to the owner of the cards instead of you... Maybe I've been reading the wrong sites?

Sid the Chicken wrote:

That decklist is dripping with flavor. You should bottle it and sell it. "What's that on your sandwich, Bob?" "Oh this? It's Pharikasauce!"

Hahaha, thanks I always try to make my decks as flavorful as possible, with only one or two exceptions. And if that's not possible, I make them "feel" flavorful.

I believe so too, but everywhere on the internet I've heard people saying she's a disappointment as the BG God, how Wizards screwed up by giving the tokens to the owner of the cards instead of you... Maybe I've been reading the wrong sites?

There was a little bit about that here, but not much. Frankly, if she gave her controller the tokens, she would have to cost enough to make her unplayable in standard because she would completely stop ground traffic.

To be fair I have heard people call her the worst God too. I may have even said the same myself tbh. I really enjoyed this report though, and it has given me new fondness for Pharika. TBH I think all the gods could perform nicely, the fact that they are cheap and big and indestructible makes them playable where most other creatures wouldn't be.

This deck looks so great that i decided to give Pharika a spin and basically copied all the awesomemness from this list. I used to have a Damia Gorgon Theme deck that was fun, but the general leads to not-so-fun stuff and playing blue always makes you 20% douchier, so g/b is more friendly, I think. Maluko, I hope you don't mind me doing that, and i might post a decklist in the decklist forum soon.

If you need another deck idea... I'm considering Pharika for my Glissa deck, but I can't find space. Giving tokens to your opponent and killing them is a pretty good way to recur your artifacts though. Since Pharika survives most sweepers, you can freely recur Nevinyrral's disk or Oblivion Stone (or whatever tickles your fancy). Even if you run just a tiny amount of creatures, as long as your deck can handle the colors Glissa, the traitor is a good card in the 99. And she has deathtouch, so I'm sure you can fit here in the theme. Need a thematic artifact to recur? Look no further than Triangle of War.

Glissa is already in (one of my favorite b/g cards), i wish i had more space. For example, i run Arena, and would like to include Expeditioner's map, which is also great with Glissa, but alas, I already have to much cards, and I'm not really willing to cut cool random cards like Spiritmonger yet.